"You live in Kirkwood. Get over to Tropical Moose and have the chocolate cream snow cone."
"Saralynn, you're not a true Kirkwoodian! You've never been to Tropical Moose? For shame!"
"you can't call yourself a true Kirkwoodian if you've never been to Tro Mo."
Well, I'm not a true Kirkwoodian, but we finally did go to Tro Mo tonight, and it was good.
After dinner, Paul, Ellie, and Ada were playing in Ellie's room while I read a chapter of Harry Potter 5 (that Dolores Umbridge!). Ellie came charging out of her room saying, "Tima go! Time-uh go!"
She wouldn't share with us exactly where we needed to go, but since we're indulgent parents and the girls and I were cooped up inside all day today (over 100 degrees and miserable out there, ugh) we all grabbed shoes and loaded into the cool car for a drive.
Ellie directed us at the intersections: left, right, right, straight, until it became apparent that she mainly wanted to drive around and listen music. Then we drove into Kirkwood for shaved ice. I had wedding cake, Paul had chocolate, and Ellie chose not to partake of hers - too cold.
Then we drove around looking for our dream house for a while before heading home to start the two-hour battle to get our girls to sleep. Paul and I play the house game differently. He restricts himself to houses that are actually for sale, which certainly cuts down on the size of the pool. I figure that since this is fantasy shopping anyway, why bother with a technicality like a for sale sign, anyway?
But back to the sleeping for a moment. This absolutely sucks. Ada was the world's best sleeper until Scotland, and we've been struggling to get back on track ever since. It's been more than 6 weeks since we returned to our native time zone. Ellie was putting herself to bed wonderfully - we'd read stories, say prayers, kiss her goodnight, then leave - until the baby was born. We allowed her the luxury of one of us lying with her while she fell asleep in the months after Ada came home because she seemed to need it. Now we're trying to break that habit and it is not going well at all.
Also? There are people who will train your pet for you. Why not your child? I would give pretty much anything in my possession for someone to come over and finish off this potty training business.
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6 comments:
We like that you're looking for houses around where you live now. :o) We like the area too....
Finally... but it's not just because the chocolate cream sno cone is orgasmic. It's a social thing. Welcome to Kirkwood!
Glad you finally made it to the Moose! Ellie's not alone, my boy turned his nose up at his too, but that was partially my fault for letting him pick his own flavor. I should have known he wouldn't like the one he asked for, right? :)
As for the sleeping, oh man, we've been there. We did a lot of things right with kid #1, but sleep was not one of those. We nursed him to sleep (well, *I* did anyway), we stood with our hands on his body in his crib until he fell asleep, we laid down with him. We did all manner of crazy things, and it was bad.
One day we realized this was just not working, and we gradually stopped doing it. Less and less time each night was spent lying down, and moving further away. There were huge screaming protests at first, but they got better. Hopefully you can do this too, with much less screaming, and end this so you can all sleep!
We still snuggle with Charlotte to get her to sleep too. I give her a time "limit" and sort of count down how long I will stay with her--stuff like "just 5 minutes", "One more minute". I'm not really watching a clock, but it's just to let her prepare. Merl tends to snuggle with her till she falls asleep--I think he spends a lot longer than I do in there, and gets more complaints from her.
I'm with you on the potty training thing too. Charlotte's gotten a whole lot better the last couple of weeks, but after a couple of months of insane laundry. Charlotte now owns like 3 dozen pairs of underwear so we could get caught up on everyone else's laundry instead of just washing her accidents. I wish I could share the magic word that fixes it, but I still don't know what changed that we can now count accidents per week instead of per day....
Also? There are people who will train your pet for you. Why not your child? I would give pretty much anything in my possession for someone to come over and finish off this potty training business.
Sadly I have made the same mistakes with Carys that Seasonal talks about in her comment. She sleeps in our bed with us, though "sleeps" is a bit on the optimistic side. She cluster nurses from 2ish to 5ish then kinks out again until 8:30. It's killing me. I have some serious luggage under my red-rimmed puffy eyes. I nurse her to sleep and this was my biggest mistake. She WILL NOT go to sleep any other way at night. Now she's approaching 20 months, I don't know how much longer I can keep going.
Rob, you know we'd love to have you here!
Thanks, RHE! And while I wish you hadn't gone away, I'm glad things are so great for you where you are (and not just physically).
SK, I want to know how to manage the screaming, refusing quiet time in the room in the afternoons, with a second one who really needs that nap time! ARGH!!
Kristi, I would never have managed what you've been doing with Charlotte; I've been keeping Ellie in diapers until she can stay dry (for days) without accidents. I really hate the idea of urine outside of toilets and diaper pails.
Beach, you have my sympathy! And understanding, too. Do you have something like our Parents as Teachers program up there? It's a state-sponsored program where "parent educators" come visit new parents (child ages birth - 3 years) for regular visits to talk about developmental milestones, issues, concerns, etc. Our parent educator helped me a *lot* with sleep, coming over and talking me through a couple of naptimes. Now, with two, it's all wonky again . . .
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